Last weekend I was at a YouTube
convention. Looking back it was one of the strangest but also one of the best
days of my life. It was chaotic, I was in constant fear of getting crushed and
my friend and I didn't even manage to meet everyone we wanted to meet even
though we stood in a queue for two hours. There were several thousand of people
and depending on who you wanted to meet the line was pretty long and some people
kept pushing in from the sides. Some of the international guests have a subscriber
count that is way over 1 million, which to me seems incredible. Before you
judge me or the event though, you have to understand that I had the possibility
of talking to some people that I watch weekly on YouTube and who inspire more
than I can actually explain. If you are into YouTube and you ever have the
chance to go to such an event, just do it, even if you don't like it you'll
have made some interesting memories.
So the point of this post
isn't to write about my experiences there, I just wanted to show you that when
it comes to YouTube we are talking about this huge community that sometimes
seems to benefit only the people who are already well known and us viewers are
doomed to linger on the outer edges of the internet, even though that's not
what we want. Sometimes it seems impossible to reach more people and to find
your own voice in this big thing, but other times there are opportunities that
shouldn't be dismissed.
Weird & Wonderful is
such an opportunity for me. Last Saturday I queued for half an hour (we had a
lucky start) to get a picture with one of the YouTubers who has over 2,2
million subscribers. Some people waited for hours and didn't meet him as there
were just too many. The next day, on Sunday, I had a casual Google hangout with
that guy's sister, alongside with about seven other people from around the
world. The siblings I'm talking about are Caspar and Theodora Lee, two South
African YouTubers. How on earth did I come from queuing for one to casually
chatting to the other?
I’ll give you a short
history. Theo might be older than Caspar, but she only started her YouTube
channel after Caspar had some sort of success online. I don't think she misused
her brother's fame, but who wouldn't use what's around them when they thought
they had something to tell, so she surely benefited from it when she made her first
video. She always tried to find her own voice though, as far as I can tell, so
they only used the same media to get that content out they thought was worth
sharing. Caspar’s more into comedy and Theo tried out different genres. Right
now she is into worldchanging ;).
As of recently though Theo
wants to separate what she is doing completely from what her brother does, in
order to step out of his shadow. At least that's how I understood it all. She
has called upon people all around the world to help her and to work together on
this thing she decided to call weird & wonderful. Everyone who wanted to
could apply and we are about sixty people now. It's not just about YouTube
though, some are talented in social media, art, music, or in my case, writing.
There is room for anything "as long as it is creative" to quote Theo
herself. The main goal is to discuss difficult topics and to help each other
out in difficult situations. Everyone has gone through different things in
their lives, positive and negative, but every single person has a story to
tell.
As I said, last Sunday we
had a hangout, to get to know each other more, especially this time Theo joined
us too. Most of the creators are teenage girls, which for me is very funny.
They are incredibly motivated and such sweethearts. We have set up a
whatsappchat and things never get boring there. Every other week we get a topic
that we can do a project on and right now I'm working on my project
three.
Of course I don't know
where this whole thing is headed, but it feels like the shoe fits so well right
now. I love how my internet existence slowly turns into something more than
just consuming. What goes along that line was that during the YouTube
convention we were in line to meet another South African guy (I think they are
my favourite people right now xD). I once was in a video of his about
productivity. That video was filmed on Skype. So when we reached the front of
the queue and I said hello to him he went: "Oh, your Alice from
Switzerland, right?". I'm not a fangirl but well, that was my favourite
moment of all. Someone with 30k subs remembers me, I'm working together with
Theodora Lee and I'm part of this amazing online community? Pretty rad.
I wrote this post for two
reasons. Working on W&W might take up quite some time. We all know I've
been a lazy blogger anyway, so sorry if that continues. On the other hand I
also wanted to introduce you to this part of my life that if everything goes
according to plan might become very important to me. I'll try my best to not
neglect this site though, so join me along this journey which is hopefully going
to be as weird as it's going to be wonderful.
Cheerio.
P.s. I'll post the team's
introduction video down below if you want to take a glimpse of "us".
I know, I know, I'm late to
the whole year recap thing, but better late than never. Besides, we are on the
first page of a 365 pages long new chapter and even though I mocked the idea of
the calendar changing to be something important to a human life just yesterday,
I can imagine it to be a good milestone to recollect past happenings and to re-evaluate
ones life. To be honest sometimes I'm convinced that studying sociology is the
best thing for me, considering how much I like to overanalyse things like New
Year.
I'm not sure if I'm ever
able to say: "This was my best year". Every year has had its ups and
downs. I remember December 2012 was rough; I was pretty depressed and sad. One evening
shortly before the year ended I remember crying my eyes out because I couldn't
take it no more. What was it? Life in general. You see I started last year not
in the best mood, and I continued it until halfway through February. Then the
first step on my recovery happened, it was the day that I was offered the money
to go on that mission trip that I talked about in an earlier post. It was
something that didn't have to do with my problems considering finding a job and
a flat for college, but it was a sign that everything might turn out just
alright somehow.
I recently checked through
my diary and read the things I wrote last year. I couldn't help but smile. In
march I wrote that I finally felt like I was on the upgrade as I had found a
job and about two weeks later I was approached by my youth pastor and asked if
I wanted to become a youth group leader. Of course I also like March because it
was my birthday and finally because I filmed my first ever YouTube video in the
middle of the month. It was pretty awesome.
In April I started working,
which was tiring but I was so happy to be finally doing something again. Also I
actually became a youth group leader. May and June were month when nothing very
spectacular happened, at least nothing that is really worth to be mentioned.
July I only remember having to work more, being exhausted and also preparing
for Mallorca. Also throughout this time I was tutoring a friend of mine in
English which was something that I quite liked. Last but not least I found a
flat, even though I was very sceptical about that, but it didn't end up quite
as bad.
August was Mallorca, which definitely
marks the highlight of my year. The best part about it? I'm coming back this
year! During this time I also grew back closer to a friend who I wasn't that
close anymore before. September meant moving out and starting University. A
huge step for me, a real adventure but a good one.
My favourite about October definitely
was going to Germany in order to visit the people I met in Mallorca. That was
another adventure. I went there with the friend I grew closer again, but I
wanted to meet someone from Stuttgart before heading over to Karlsruhe, so it
was my first time going to a foreign country on my own and it was also the
first time to organize a travel. I know it's nothing huge, but for me it meant
quite something. It showed to me once more that I want to keep crossing my own boundaries
and get past the things I know. That adventure included being a total minority,
seeing dear friends and even going to visit a prison. Pretty cool.
November was challenging. I
did my first "preach" in front of my youth group which made me very
nervous. I'm not very good with standing in front of people, but I aim to be, so
I'm not afraid to work on that. I'm pretty ok with how it went in the end.
Besides there was NaNoWriMo, and busy weekends in general as everything seemed
to be crammed into the last two month of the year.
December was rough, family
drama deluxe, studying for finals, Christmas, and New Year. I struggled again
but I told myself to keep looking on the bright spots, the support of my
friends, the dance we had at our church and the fact that I survived my first
semester and that I could take a break again. The past few days were chaotic
but alright in the end.
After some shenanigans on
Sunday I found my eyes to feel rather sore which turned out to be an eye
infection. The problem was that I had promised to co-host my church's New Years
Eve party and that we had nothing planned. After going to the doctor yesterday
he gave me an ok to go, but sadly the other co-host was sick. So yesterday
included running to the doctor's, calling a friend very humbly to ask if he
would co-host with me (which to my utter surprise he agreed to do), helping to
set up the decoration, planning somewhat of a program to entertain the crowd
for a while, hosting and besides, trying not to infect anyone and finally
actually enjoying myself within that chaos. It all worked out, probably largely
because said friend not only stepped in as co-host, but also as technician
filling the gap that a sick organiser leaves behind. Even though he does not
read my blog, a massive thank you once again. Good to know I have friends that
I can spontaneously count on.
To be fair that is not even
close to what went on during this year, but all that I thought to be important
enough to mention. The year in general was filled with friends, laughter, beautiful and unforgettable moments and as I said, ups and downs. I can't wait for all the exciting new things that 2014 will bring
the adventures and the challenges. It better be great!
I love reading. It's
something I cannot imagine living without; it's a second nature of mine. When
my brother and I were just little kids our mum didn't allow us to stay up past
7 pm. And she forbade us to watch TV after around six. The only thing we still
could do was looking at storybooks, later read in real books. When we got
older, and I'm talking about the time until I was thirteen, the TV turn off
time was eight and we were allowed to read until nine. She was quite strict,
you know.
As me and my brother didn't
have much against that rule we actually read quite a lot. I remember one of the
first books I read was about an alley cat. Title and name are still present to
me and I think it was about the first book to actually make me cry.
Well you see my mum was
supportive of us reading, but she wasn't supporting of us staying up long due
to that. So at a certain age I started to read under my blanket, using a DS game
boy as a light... bad decision. My mum once told me that she used to do the
same, that's why she has glasses. Second generation here and I'm convinced it
was worth it. She also wasn't supportive of certain genres though. Harry Potter
was no problem; she even went to see every single movie with my brother and me
because she wanted to. What she didn't like were vampire stories, but in the
end she let us do what we wanted, she couldn't stop me from reading Twilight anyway.
There is this thing about books;
they carry a lot of emotions. On the one hand side there are the ones that are
written down. The heartbreak when a main character dies, the pain you life
through with a person that does in fact not even live, let alone feel anything.
It doesn't help. I can tell myself about a thousand times that I read a story
that is purely fictional. I can't keep distance to a story; I fall right into
it and get lost. Sometimes I need to remind myself that I don't have to fight
an evil magician or that I am not battling a deadly fever or that there is definitely
not a giant snow storm going on outside, as it is summer. Yes all of these
things happened at some point in my head and I had to get over them.
Another thing is that
sometimes I can't help but cry or shout or squeal. I'm not a quiet reader (am
not a quiet anything to be honest). This spring I was at a friend’s house for a
couple of days as kind of a vacation. She is one of my closest friends and I
feel quite at home there, so one day she was learning some songs while I was
sat on her couch reading. It happened that the male main character of a book
died so tragically that I started to bawl like a baby. She looked up to me,
asked what happened and when I told her she got back to her music. Not because
she is rude but because she understands that I needed to get the pain out and
after that I'd be ok. Today was one of these days too, I've read three entire
books in 26 hours, (of which I slept 7 and was away 6 more) and in the end I
cried because it was heartbreaking. On the other hand there is barely anything
that makes me feel more stress released than finishing a truly beautiful,
addicting and somewhat perfect story. That’s somewhat explains why I can't go
on for too long without reading, it's just not healthy for me.
The last but not least thing
that fascinates me about this whole topic is the knowledge you absorb. I can't
even imagine how different I'd be if I had never read all these books. I don't
see myself as intelligent, but how duller life would be without people like
Elizabeth Bennet, Hermione Granger, Aria Stark, Aischa, Jenny, Peeta, Alice,
Theo and so one. How less I'd now about Islam, of Heisenberg uncertainty
principle, about Westeros, the time around 1666, shadow man, and the USA? I'd
have no idea what I'd be even talking about in this last paragraph. Part of my
personality was formed by books, and I hope that this keeps happening until my
eyes are too weak to see anything more, and if you ask me that'll be the day
when I switch to audio books anyway ;)
